Extract from the Yorkshire Evening Post:
A drunk who claimed he had been raped by a dog was yesterday jailed for 12 months by a judge. Martin Hoyle, 45, was arrested by police after a passing motorist and his girlfriend found a Staffordshire bull terrier, called Badger, having sex with him at the side of a road in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
Prosecutor Ben Crosland said the couple had stopped to help because they thought Hoyle was being attacked by the animal. But when they got closer they saw that he had his trousers round his ankles, was down on all fours and the dog was straddling him from behind.
"The defendant mumbled something about the dog having taken a liking to him," said Mr Crosland. "The couple were extremely offended and sickened by what they saw." Another passing motorist contacted the police and Hoyle was arrested as he walked with the dog down the road.
Hoyle, of East view, Marsh, Huddersfield, told police "I can't help it if the dog took a liking to me. He tried to rape me."
He repeated the rape allegation at the police station and added "The dog pulled my trousers down." Hoyle, who has had a long-standing alcohol problem, was jailed for 12 months after he admitted committing an act which outraged public decency.
His barrister said Hoyle had no memory of the incident because of his drunken state, but was now very remorseful and incredibly embarrassed.
Jailing him, Judge Alistair McCallum told Hoyle "Never before in my time at the bar or on the bench have I ever had to deal with somebody who voluntarily allowed himself to be buggered by a dog on the public highway. Frankly it is beyond most of our comprehension. It is an absolutely disgusting thing for members of the public to have to witness."

So is there any truth to this story, or is it just a joke? First, it should be noted that the story dates back to 1998 and has been attributed to various publications, including the Yorkshire Evening Post, the London Evening Standard, and The Sun. A Dec. 19, 1998 posting in the usenet group alt.tasteless claimed it was printed in The Sun on Dec. 1, 1998. I don't know why the story has suddenly started to circulate around again now.

I can't find the story listed in any electronic news archives. However, the Lexis-Nexis archive for the Yorkshire Evening Post only goes back to 2000, and The Sun's online archive (which goes back to 1996) didn't want to work for me (probably because I'm not a subscriber). So I can't rule out that the story never appeared in a newspaper.

In the story's favor, there is a Yorkshire prosecutor named Ben Crosland, as well as a Judge named Alistair McCallum (who has a history of making memorable remarks about the cases he's judging. In 1996 he stirred up controversy by referring to a case of sexual harassment as mere "horseplay.") The main factor weighing against it being true is how ridiculous it is. It definitely has shades of being another Hippo Eats Dwarf kind of story (right down to the detail of the bull terrier being named Badger), but until I can determine that it wasn't printed as news in 1998, I won't classify it as a hoax.

Update: After subscribing to The Sun's archive (at their lowest rate), I discovered that this story was indeed reported there on Dec. 1, 1998, though in an abbreviated form. See the comments below where I've pasted exactly what ran in The Sun.

Ok. Right. Somehow I have a hard time believing that the man (who was drunk at the supposed time of rape),was de-pantsed by the dog. I know they are really intelligent, but i don't think a dog would really have bothered to pull down the guy's pants before doing something like humping the guy, no matter how large of a liking it could have taken to him.

P.S. Romance? Really Alex!

Posted by Carmen on Tue Nov 01, 2005 at 05:17 PM

Heh, that's the first time I've actually seen 'buggered' in its British sense.

Posted by Citizen Premier in spite of public outcry on Tue Nov 01, 2005 at 05:30 PM

I'm sure the guy's story about being de-pantsed by the dog is bogus. But I'm curious about whether the case itself ever occurred. Right now I'm inclined to think that it did.

Posted by The Curator in San Diego on Tue Nov 01, 2005 at 05:46 PM

I think the guy did what some women do. He had a little too much to drink, went a little farther then he wanted to, so he screamed rape.

Posted by Cathy in South Dakota on Tue Nov 01, 2005 at 05:58 PM

Okay, I just HAD TO KNOW. So I paid two pounds fifty to subscribe to the Sun's archive (which allowed me to download five articles). And sure enough, the story about Hoyle and the dog did appear there on December 1, 1998. Though in a much abbreviated form. Here's exactly what ran in The Sun:

TUE 01 DEC 1998, Page 13 Mad World one:
A MAN who was caught having sex with a dog by the roadside and claimed the animal raped him was jailed for a year yesterday. A couple called police after spotting drunken Martin Hoyle, 45, on all fours with a Staffordshire Bull Terrier named Badger behind him. He told cops: "I can't help it if it took a liking to me. He pulled my trousers down." Hoyle, of Huddersfield, admitted outraging public decency at Bradford.

Posted by Mason Inman in San Francisco on Tue Nov 01, 2005 at 06:55 PM

people get raped by dogs all the time... No biggie.

Posted by Carter S on Tue Nov 01, 2005 at 08:09 PM

So ... being buggered by a dog is illegal in Yorkshire?

Shouldn't the dog have gone to jail, then?

Posted by Big Gary, on spiritual retreat at an undisclosed m in Dallas, Texas on Tue Nov 01, 2005 at 09:41 PM

Good point, Mason. But since The Sun in this instance is reporting on a court case in its own country, with identifiably real characters, I'm going to trust them. Also it appears that other papers, such as the Yorkshire Evening Post, reported the story more fully.

Posted by The Curator in San Diego on Tue Nov 01, 2005 at 10:15 PM

So I was wondering, when dogs do it, they get stuck together. When this guy and dog got caught, was the dog stuck?

Andrew - you're assuming that students read newspapers. I think that might be another hoax

Posted by Pete Cahill in Yorkshire on Wed Nov 02, 2005 at 06:24 AM

I've checked the sun archives back to 1996, no reference to this story whatsoever. I've also searched the online archives for most other newspapers - see http://www.newsuk.co.uk/about/content_list.jsp Nothing about it at all (you'll need to be a subscriber to view the archives though)

Douglas, I checked The Sun's archives, and it is there. See my comment above.

Posted by The Curator in San Diego on Wed Nov 02, 2005 at 10:31 AM

woah! dog's get stuck together?
i want details, please.

Posted by !!!! on Wed Nov 02, 2005 at 05:20 PM

Don't know about dogs, but probably does happen. Definitely recall seeing a doco about wolves years ago, and they do get stuck together when mating because the female's pelvis expands somehow, thereby "locking" the male onto her.

Posted by Smerk in to mischief on Wed Nov 02, 2005 at 08:10 PM

YEAH, DOGS DO THAT, IT IS NORMAL WHERE I COME FROM. BUT PEOPLE INSTAGATE IT FIRST!!!
AHH!!! AH!!!!

Posted by All Tweeked up!!! on Thu Nov 03, 2005 at 12:36 AM

Toooo much information!

Posted by Carmen in Vancouver on Thu Nov 03, 2005 at 11:00 AM

Dogs (and wolves and coyotes) get stuck together because a gland at the base of the penis swells inside the female. The male then turns around so he can stand on all fours. Seems like it would be uncomfortable, but that's how they do it.

Posted by hippievet on Thu Nov 03, 2005 at 12:30 PM

HIPPIEVET is dead on... as a youngster in the Thames Valley I watched my cousin's b/w female mutt standing bum to bum with another dog just inside the local vicarage grounds, and when I called out to her she looked out and up at me with such a beautifully glazed yet somewhat pained expression that I knew I was intruding on something quite private even tho' I was hardly seven years old...and when Pluto gave birth to five little b/w puppies some time later I understood what that look was about. I geuss Martin and Badger were'nt really that close.

Posted by Sir Trev on Fri Nov 11, 2005 at 07:17 PM

I know im commenting on a very old thread, but i just wanted to confirm that this story is completley true!! I grew up in marsh, huddersfield and this happened when i was about 14. me and my friends all knew who the guy (martin hoyle) was and saw him nearly every day, he was a very strange guy, very scruffy and always completley out of it!! It happened on westbourne road in marsh, on the corner opposite the chemist and straight across the road from shabans take-away!! Very nasty but very true!!!

Posted by guy from marsh in huddersfield on Mon Jun 01, 2009 at 06:18 AM
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